Together with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ Ukraine), we are launching a new program “Strong Regions – Special Support Program for Ukraine”. The project will support local communities, particularly in eastern and southern Ukraine.
As a result of our joint efforts, residents of at least 80 communities in Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy and Chernihiv oblasts will have better and more convenient access to local administrative, medical and social services, including to overcome the effects of the pandemic.
In addition, in the Kherson region, the program will support checkpoints on the administrative border with Crimea to create more comfortable conditions for Ukrainians to cross the border with Russia’s illegally annexed peninsula to preserve human ties.
The program is funded at 10 million euros and will last until October 2023. The program builds on the EU’s response to the conflict since 2014, the EU’s long-term partnership with Ukraine and GIZ, and the successful GIZ conflict response work with 20 communities in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts since 2020.
The process of selecting partner communities in eight oblasts will begin soon. The European Union’s Strong Regions program is part of a € 190 million financial assistance package mobilized by the EU in the spring of 2020 to help Ukraine fight COVID-19.